Ex-boyfriend of murdered Connecticut actress made threats from jail, family says
By Richard Weizel MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A Connecticut actress beaten and stabbed to death in her home in 2006 was repeatedly threatened by her former boyfriend from prison, the victim's mother and brother testified on Tuesday at his murder trial. Matthew Pugh, 42, is being tried in Superior Court in Milford in the 2006 killing of Alexandra Ducsay, 26, who had acting roles that included an appearance on the popular television crime drama "Law and Order." Pugh, who was in prison in 2004 on a drugs charge, has pleaded not guilty in the murder case. Pugh was arrested in 2012 after a long investigation uncovered letters he sent to Ducsay from jail in 2004, threatening to make her life "a living hell" after they had broken up. "He called her on the phone every day, most times twice a day," Ducsay's mother, Linda Ducsay, told the 12-member jury Tuesday. She said Pugh had also threatened her in a telephone call when she suggested that he leave her daughter alone. "He said I should really be careful of what I say. I asked if that was a threat, and he said, 'Take it any way you want," she told the jury. Linda Ducsay said she was the one who found her daughter's dead body in 2006 in their shared home in Milford, about 50 miles south of the capital Hartford. "As I walked down the stairs to her basement living area, I saw blood splattered on the radiator. Then I saw my daughter lying on the ground with a pool of blood caked on her long blond hair," she testified while crying. Ducsay's brother, Eric Terranova, also living in the home at the time, testified that he was also threatened in a phone call from Pugh, and that his sister had told him just weeks before Pugh's release that she was "scared" of him. Pugh's lawyer has said evidence against Pugh is circumstantial. Pugh's cousin, Anthony Pugh, will be called to testify as the prosecution's key witness. Prosecutors say the cousin told investigators that Pugh had talked about killing Ducsay and covering up her murder. An autopsy determined the cause of Ducsay's death was blunt force trauma. (Corrects time of Pugh's imprisonment in third paragraph) (Editing by Richard Valdmanis, Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman)
